Dark Matter - Episode Two - Review: "The Mercs Have Turned!"

After the fun twist at the end of the pilot, Dark Matter has a little trouble finding its focus this week. Yes, yes, Dark Matter, you’ve just woken up and are groggy with brain damage probably, we the audience understand, but this does not mean you can’t move forward with purpose. The crew’s history is fleshed out just a bit by the appearance of their current contractors, the shady Ferrous Corp, and the crew sent out as a contingency plan when the Raza went dark. We also get the bonus of a couple of big shoot-em-out battles, the second of which was particularly well done. In spite of this, the episode feels incredibly muddled, a bit like it’s throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. There are a lot of nice moments mixed with off-tone scenes and plot elements that don’t quite work.

The second episode picks up right where the pilot left off. There is some rehashing of the moments-old revelation that the Raza is a crew of criminals, and that they are floating above a planet of people they were likely planning to murder. Everyone seems generally pretty determined to be defined by who they are now and not their past (except Three, who is only committed to cracking wise) as Four astutely sums up that whatever happened before is no longer a part of them so it doesn’t matter. This may be true for one’s sense of self, but less so for his business dealings. They decide to stick with the plan to donate half their arsenal to the miners before peacing out, and the boys load up the Marauder to head out, leaving Two, Five, and the Android to hold down the fort.

Down on Planet Disenfranchised Miner, One struggles with his feelings on leaving the villagers to fend for themselves while simultaneously flirting vaguely with village cutie. The young woman is not given a name, or any real personality trait beyond the ability to pull off an excellent side fishtail in the face of battle. The planet of miners is a big part of what fails this episode. No one is very well defined or treated as much more than a problem for the crew to solve, a vehicle for their heroics (or villainy, should they decide to go that way). The options here are just so extreme -- let a nice planet of people live or die – that the moral quandary feels almost cartoonish. The more time we spend with miners, the more it feels like a slog.

Case in point, as the crew is living it up with the village people (hehe) and considering slipping out, Irish goodbye style (Six is prepared to drag One out by his do-gooder scruff if need be), the Ferrous Corporation shuttle lands guns first, grounding everyone once again. As the miners face the FCS officers, One runs out in between them, chill hands a-waving. He tries and fails to negotiate rather embarrassingly, but this gives Four the chance to demonstrate the advantages of swordplay in close quarters, so I’m not complaining. With the crew on their side the miners win the battle and round up the remaining FCS officers.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Ferrous Corp ship boards the Raza to confront Two. She bluffs her way through the negotiation admirably, and from this conversation we get the useful information that Ferrous Corp is one of several multicorps vying for control over the universe, and boy do they want control of that mining planet; they have tons of soldiers at their disposal and won’t stop until it’s theirs. Two is offered a bonus to abandon the planet, her crew included, but she must hightail it out of there right away. Cut to the Marauder charging up for takeoff, and a baffled Six announcing the Raza is gone.

With no choice but to fight, the boys settle in with the miners and try to come up with a game plan. Four terrifies some information out of a captive FCS soldier and they surmise the next strike will be at a big central reactor core (apparently this location could easily be staged to appear as a massive accident that wiped out the miners, man that Ferrous Corp is dubious with a capital D), everyone gets in position and prepares for what is sure to be a well-choreographed fight to the death. Six volunteers to take the Marauder out kamikaze-ing, thinking if they take out the base ship he can stop this battle before it begins and force Ferrous Corp to think twice about sending more soldiers later. They sigh their goodbyes and send him off, fingers crossed. Is it just me, or did this seem off-tone? A big part of emotional connection is shared history, which, by the definition of their amnesia, these guys cannot possibly have. I understand that this is television and it’s important for our central characters to feel like a family, but these relationships are still very new and the sentimentality felt off to me.

Before Six can get off the ground, he’s taken hostage by the formerly captive FCS soldier, freed by a couple of idiot miners hoping to trade their safety for the surrender of the rest of the mining colony. Waves of FCS soldiers land and the very cool battle begins. The reactor core is probably not ideal for anyone who wants to survive an actual gunfight, as the crew had pointed out, but it sure serves up some fine camera angles and multi-level action sequences. The gunfire halts and the battle shifts to a hostage negotiation, with the turncoat miners shuffling Six into the fray and ordering surrender. One, Three, and Four begrudgingly agree to go out in a blaze of glory and rush out hollering, weapons brandished, only to find Six alone- the FCS has retreated entirely thanks to Two’s off-screen gambit pitting one multicorp against another and securing a better deal for the mining colony.

In case you hadn’t noticed, that last act was particularly convoluted. I’m assuming the intent is to leave viewers perched at the edge of their seats, with twists and turns keeping a predictable resolution just out of the field of vision. But laying out so many twists and turns so fast doesn’t allow them to fully develop, and unless this is done with the utmost precision it’s bound to leave the audience spinning. I don’t see an underlying purpose here yet, underscored perfectly in the moments after Two has saved the day. The crew stands around wondering what to do next and she answers vaguely about refueling at a distant planet and getting to know one another on the way. It’s played lightly, but highlights the shiftlessness of the plot after so much hoop-jumping to prove their heroics.

The episode ends, however, on an intriguing note with Five, who spent the episode army crawling through air ducts and solving Four’s puzzle box. She quietly confesses to Two that she remembers uploading a memory-wiping virus while everyone else was in stasis, but the memory is not hers. This mythology is easily the most compelling part of the show so far, first with the suggestion that there is a larger game of chess at play, and second in the enigma that is Five. This show could certainly play as straight science fiction, with memory loss that more or less exists within the bounds of nature already, but Five serves as a wild card in that respect. Her ability to walk the minds of others, or whatever is happening in her brain, is an interesting spin on the inherent logic of what we can assume has happened on the Raza. It’s a great scene to close on, laying out a twist with substance, a questions that begs answers.

Post Script:

“Okay, Two!” The Android is adorkable.

“Who doesn’t love a good song?”

So the turncoat miner who was like “killing those soldiers wasn’t part of the plan!” Wait, what? Then what was the plan exactly?? Was he thinking dance battle? Poetry slam? I worry this man did not know what he was getting into.

“So… do either of you possess offspring?”

“Could you be more specific?”

“You don’t name your guns?” YOUR JAYNE COBB IS SHOWING

So there are obvious Firefly parallels to make here (see last quote, and Five is essentially a coherent River) but it’s very early in the series and I’d like to see if they can sufficiently break away from the mold in that respect. (The Serenity crew had defining character tropes to fall back on too, they just used them very, very well.)

Also, I laughed really hard at that blaze of glory mislead.

What did you think of the second episode? Digging the show, not for you, or somewhere in between? Join in the conversation below!

About the Author - Lindsey Salazar

Lindsey is an unabashed TV, film, and book nerd who lives and works in Los Angeles. Watch this space!

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